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Let the bidding begin. Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler is officially a free agent and is allowed to sign with any team, according to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal.

Source: Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler, 20, is now a free agent, eligible to sign with any club.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 2, 2012

At the end of last year, Baseball America’s Jim Callis wrote that Soler is an extremely talented right fielder who has five-tool potential if he develops properly. 

Signing Soler could be somewhat expensive but Boston could use a young right fielder for their future. As Baseball Prospectus’ Kevin Goldstein tweets, the Red Sox are one of the favorites to sign the Cuban outfielder.

Cubs, Phillies, Red Sox, Marlins, Blue Jays. @NoSeeUmCreek: @Kevin_Goldstein Instead of asking abt every team, who are faves for Soler?

— Kevin Goldstein (@Kevin_Goldstein) June 2, 2012

Boston has Carl Crawford under contract until 2018 and Jacoby Ellsbury until 2014. The Red Sox do have a couple of good prospects in the minor leagues, such as Brandon Jacobs, Jackie Bradley and Bryce Brentz, but none of them compare to what Soler could bring to the table.

As we’ve seen this season, you can never have too many outfielders. With Ellsbury, Crawford, Cody Ross, Jason Repko and Darnell McDonald all on the disabled list, Boston has been playing with Ryan Sweeney, Scott Podsednik, Daniel Nava, Marlon Byrd and even Adrian Gonzalez in the outfield.

Signing Soler would show fans that general manager Ben Cherington is really interested in making this team better. Even though he’s only been in the GM chair for a few months, we haven’t seen any major moves made. It would also be a huge addition for the future of the Red Sox, as Soler could turn into a superstar.

Boston hasn’t really been big on players in the international market since signing Daisuke Matsuzaka a few years back. They didn’t bite on Yu Darvish or Yoenis Cespedes. Will they make an offer for Soler?

Goldstein also tweets that all bids for Soler have to be in by June 7, so we should have an answer within the next few days.

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Well, you can now add Dustin Pedroia to the growing list of injured Boston Red Sox players.

On the Memorial Day matchup against the Detroit Tigers, Pedroia exited the game after making a diving catch. Pedroia was held out of tonight’s game against the Tigers with a jammed left thumb, according to the Boston Globe’s Michael Vega.

According to the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo, the Red Sox are still unsure of what to do with the sidelined second baseman.

Pedroia torn abductor muscle in thumb. Hopes to play through with splint and avoid DL. Team is still discussing DL.

— Nick Cafardo (@nickcafardo) May 30, 2012

Losing Pedroia is a huge blow to the Red Sox, as they don’t really have a true second baseman to replace him in the field or in the lineup.

Here are five potential replacements during Pedroia’s absence, whether it be short term or long term.

Note: All statistics are through May 28.

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Nearly two years ago at the trade deadline, the Boston Red Sox sent two minor league players to the Texas Rangers for catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

The initial thought of many, including my own, was, “Isn’t that the guy who can’t throw the ball back to the pitcher?” Yes, that was him.

He had only played in two major league games with the Rangers that season, spending most of the year in Triple-A. After the trade, he only played in 10 games with the Red Sox and didn’t make much of an impact.

Now, he’s making a huge impact behind the plate in Boston.

Starting the game on the bench tonight against the Tampa Bay Rays, Saltalamacchia was just looking for a shot to shine. He got that shot in the bottom of the ninth, down 2-1 with Daniel Nava on second base. Facing Rays closer Fernando Rodney, who had only let up one run the entire season, Salty stepped into the box. He would then crush a Rodney pitch deep to right-center field and over the fence for a two-run walk-off home run.

Of course, this is only one sample of him succeeding but he has been consistent the entire season.

Through 36 games this year, he’s hitting .274/.314/.575 with 18 extra-base hits (10 doubles, eight home runs), 21 RBI and 16 runs. Now tied for the lead among catchers in home runs, Saltalamacchia is well on his way to passing his career-high of 16 set last season. He’s also been good defensively, ranking in the top 10 among catchers in fielding percentage and has yet to encounter issues with throwing the ball back to the pitcher.

Saltalamacchia might not be Matt Weiters or Alex Avila but he’s been a big contributor to the Red Sox this season. A selection to the All-Star game is still very far off but he does deserve some credit for what he’s been doing.

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Can anyone slow down Josh Hamilton?

Los Angeles Angels pitcher, and former teammate, CJ Wilson got Hamilton out by way of the K in his first two at-bats Saturday afternoon, but he then took Wilson deep in the bottom of the sixth, giving him 18 home runs on the season.

It has been one of the most unbelievable weeks we’ve ever seen and may never see again.

In his last five games he’s hit eight home runs. In his last six games he’s hit nine.

Today, he hit his tenth in in seven games. You didn’t read that wrong: Tenth in seven games. This stuff just doesn’t happen.

Hamilton is easily the early favorite for the AL MVP and could be on pace for some even more incredible achievements.

He’s leading the league in batting average at .402, home runs with 18 and RBI with 41, giving him and early chance at the Triple Crown, something that no one has accomplished since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.

The only player ever to have 18 home runs in his first 34 games besides Josh Hamilton is Cy Williams of the 1923 Phillies.

When Barry Bonds broke the all-time single season home run record in 2001, he only had 15 home runs in his first 34 games. Josh Hamilton is currently on pace to hit 86 home runs this season. Not to mention he’s also on pace to score 143 runs and also have 195 RBI.

Yahoo! Sports writer Jeff Passan has said it best.

At this moment, I’d venture to say Josh Hamilton is better at his job than everybody else on earth is at theirs.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 12, 2012

If Josh Hamilton keeps hitting the way he has over the past week, can anyone slow him down?

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After a disastrous September, Boston missed the postseason for the second straight season. We saw a major upheaval of the organization and the roster.

Theo Epstein and Terry Francona left.

Ben Cherington and Bobby Valentine are here.

The front office made several moves during the offseason to try and revamp the team with hopes of making a postseason run in 2012. This included letting players walk during free agency as well as trading players to try and give the team a new feel.

Here are six players that didn’t return to Boston after their epic collapse last season and have made strides to help their new teams.

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Tampa Bay Rays minor-league outfielder Tim Beckham has been suspended by Major League Baseball for 50 games for drug issues, according to Mark Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times and also confirmed by a tweet from MLB.

The 50-game suspension comes as a result of a second violation for abuse.

Beckham, who was the Rays’ No. 1 overall selection in the 2008 MLB draft, was recently playing for Triple-A Durham and was not listed on the 40-man roster. 

As Baseball Prospectus writer Kevin Goldstein tweets, it’s important that Beckham wasn’t on the 40-man roster because if he was, MLBPA drug testing doesn’t include marijuana. If he was on the roster, he would still be eligible to play and possibly get called up relatively soon, tweets Topkin.

Beckham was hitting .204/.290/.278 with six runs, two doubles, a triple and one stolen base in 13 games this season with the Durham Bulls.

He’s never hit over .275 in his professional career and now continues to be a disappointment off of the field.

Beckham said in a statement, as Topkin tweeted, “I regret that my poor judgment resulted in me letting my teammates and the Tampa Bay Rays organization down.”

The Tampa Bay Rays now have an off-field issue with another young prospect; Josh Hamilton being the other.

Will Tim Beckham ever get past his off-field issues and be the star that the Tampa Bay Rays once thought he could be?

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With the Boston Red Sox’s bullpen basically still in shambles, moves need to start being made. The Boston relievers are among the worst in the league statistically, and Daniel Bard’s week in the bullpen might not be a permanent move.

So who should Boston pursue for more help? Mike Gonzalez.

According to MLB Trade Rumors, Mike Gonzalez will be signing a contract within the next 10 days, and he was linked to Boston during the offseason. About a month ago, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe tweeted that the Red Sox had been monitoring Gonzalez. 

Gonzalez, a crafty left-hander, appeared in 56 games last season between the Baltimore Orioles and the AL champion Texas Rangers. Combined, Gonzalez compiled a 4.39 ERA in 53.1 innings of work while striking out 51 and walking 21. 

Boston currently has two left-handers in the bullpen in Franklin Morales and rookie Justin Thomas. Morales has a 6.00 ERA in six innings of work over seven appearances. In six appearances this season,Thomas has allowed four earned runs on nine hits in 4.2 innings. 

Another Boston lefty, Andrew Miller, is currently rehabbing a hamstring injury and could return within the next week or so. Even with Miller back, does that make the bullpen that much better?

I’m not convinced.

When things go bad, which they have, change needs to happen. Signing Gonzalez would not be a huge risk for someone who could turn out to have a big reward.

The addition of Gonzalez would not only improve the bullpen, it would give us a sense that general manager Ben Cherington is willing to shake up this team and make changes when things aren’t going as planned.

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Back-to-back losses to the Detroit Tigers, including a 10-0 beatdown this afternoon, probably wasn’t what manager Bobby Valentine had in mind to start the season.

In case you missed the game, you missed quite the power performance by Tigers sluggers Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder, connecting for two home runs each on the day.

Alex Avila also put one out, making it five total home runs allowed by Boston’s Josh Beckett, who was making his first start of the season. Beckett exited the game with two outs left in the fifth inning, allowing seven earned runs on seven hits (five home runs) while walking one and striking out three.

On Thursday, Boston battled back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game off of Detroit closer Jose Valverde, who didn’t blow a save in 49 opportunities last season. The Tigers won the game in the bottom of the ninth after Alfredo Aceves and Mark Melancon couldn’t contain the Detroit lineup.

Now it is still much too early to start to panic, but there are some things that we should look at.

Boston didn’t earn a win until their seventh game last season, and they led the AL East for the majority of the season thereafter. Detroit is easily one of the top teams in all of baseball, so if they can’t come up with a win tomorrow, it’s not the end of the world…yet. 

Through two games, four Boston starters have yet to even get a hit. Jacoby Ellsbury, Kevin Youkilis, Cody Ross and Mike Aviles need to start hitting if Boston doesn’t want to dig themselves a hole this early in the season. The Red Sox can’t win games with half of their lineup not hitting; it’s that simple.

Yes, Josh Beckett got roughed up badly today, but did anyone expect him to be perfect every game of the season? I’d much rather have him get hit hard against good hitters than allow seven runs to the Minnesota Twins.

Overall, it has been two games. Only two games. Boston is still slated to play 160 more. Let’s just try not to panic yet.

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At last the waiting is over. Even though it hasn’t officially been announced, we now know who the two lucky winners of the spring battle for the No. 4 and 5 spots in the Boston Red Sox starting rotation are; Felix Doubront and Daniel Bard.

Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham reported the upcoming pitching plans for the next couple of days that virtually leaked the starting rotation for the season.

According to Abraham, Clay Buchholz will start in a minor league game tomorrow. On Thursday, Alfredo Aceves will start against the Toronto Blue Jays and Felix Doubront will start in a minor league game. On Friday, Daniel Bard will start against the Minnesota Twins.

If all goes according to Abraham’s plan, the rotation would be set up as Lester, Beckett, Buccholz, Doubront and Bard.

Abraham notes that it probably isn’t a coincidence that Doubront will pitch in a minor league game instead of starting against the Blue Jays because the No. 4 spot in the rotation will face off against those same Blue Jays on April 9th.

If this serves to be true, Alfredo Aceves would start the season in the Boston bullpen and take the role of spot starter, if necessary. 

Doubront has had an excellent spring and truly won the spot in the rotation. In four starts he went 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA, striking out 10 and walking six in 16.2 innings pitched.

The plan going into the spring was to transition Bard into a starting pitcher and even though he hasn’t done as well as many have hoped, he’s starting to get a feel for starting. In five appearances this spring, he’s 1-2 with a 7.23 ERA in 18.2 innings.

Although Alfredo Aceves had three great games to start the spring, he got hit hard against the Phillies, allowing nine earned runs on 10 hits in just three innings to eliminate him from contention.

It was a great race to watch this spring, seeing who was capable of what and who would start the 2012 season in the Red Sox rotation.

In the end, the best decision was made, with Doubront and Bard taking the No. 4 and No. 5 spots.

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It’s been a good start to spring training for the Boston Red Sox, winning every game they’ve played thus far with minor speed bumps along the way. 

This past offseason brought a lot of changes to Boston, including a new manager, a new general manager, a slew of new coaches, and, most significantly, some new players.

After last season’s collapse, many issues arose as to what went wrong—beer and fried chicken in the clubhouse being one of them. New manager Bobby Valentine has already banned the consumption of alcohol in the clubhouse from hereon, but there are still other things other than clubhouse prohibition that need to happen for the organization going forward.

Here’s a look at five changes the Red Sox need to make.

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